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MIT Advocacy in Action at the AACR’s 2025 Hill Day

Koch Institute

May 29, 2025

MIT Koch Institute postdoc Meaghan McGeary traveled to Washington, DC to advocate for increased federal funding for cancer research as part of the annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Hill Day. Joining other early-career scientists in a mission to make more than 50 congressional visits in a single day, she shared her experiences with policymakers, emphasizing the importance of stable research funding.  

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Three Companies: Sasisekharan Startups Please Crowd

MIT News

April 26, 2014

“It’s about the impact we can have on patient care,” says Ram Sasisekharan, KI faculty member and the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology, about his biotech startups. The three companies, profiled in MIT News, combine cutting-edge bioengineering with entrepreneurial spirit and, like so many other enterprises coming out of KI laboratories, find new ways to apply academic research to real world problems. Sasisekharan’s 2006 startup, Cerulean, is one of a handful of companies using nanotechnology to treat cancer, while his latest venture, Visterra, has an eye toward global health. His first company, Momenta (originally Mimeon), transforms the sequencing of complex molecules into the development of powerful, efficient, low-cost therapeutics. All three reside within minutes of the KI and owe their success to what Sasisekharan calls a “melting pot of people, ideas, opportunities” and “the convergence of biology, analytics, computation, and engineering” within the MIT ecosystem.

Cima Develops a Sensor for Measuring Tumors’ Oxygen Levels

MIT News

April 21, 2014

A new sensor for measuring oxygen levels around tumors has been developed by researchers from the laboratory of KI faculty member and David H. Koch Professor in Engineering Michael Cima. The sensor, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is an injectable device made of silicone, which is picked up in MRI scans. The sensor is the first MRI contrast agent that can be left in the body for long periods of time, allowing for the collection of oxygen tension over several weeks. Given that cancer cells thrive without oxygen and tumors in low-oxygen environments are generally more aggressive and resistant to treatment, long-term monitoring of oxygen tension will provide new insights into tumor growth and could aid therapeutic choices and tracking of treatment response.

Triple Threat: A New Breed of Nanoparticles

MIT News

April 16, 2014

MIT chemists from the laboratory of Jeremiah Johnson and researchers from the group of KI faculty member and David H. Koch Professor in Engineering Paula Hammond have come together to develop a new method for building nanoparticles that carry the drugs cisplatin, doxorubicin, and camptothecin—three drugs that are often used in a combination treatment for ovarian cancer. In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Johnson and colleagues demonstrated that the triple-threat nanoparticles could kill ovarian cancer cells more effectively than particles carrying only one or two drugs.

Instead of building a particle and then binding a drug, the new approach uses drug-loaded building blocks that can be attached to others in a very specific structure. The team is now working on four-drug particles with the goal of developing new treatment regimens that could better target cancer cells while avoiding the toxic side effects of traditional chemotherapy. “This is a new way to build the particles from the beginning,” Johnson said. “In principle, there’s no limitation on how many drugs you can add.”

Bhatia’s Paper-based Urine Test for Cancer, a Game Changer

MIT News

February 24, 2014

MIT engineers led by KI faculty member Sangeeta Bhatia have developed a simple, cheap, paper-strip urine test that can reveal the presence of cancer within minutes. The paper-based diagnostic, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, can be performed on unprocessed samples without specialized equipment and can be modified to detect different types or stages of disease. This point-of-care, image-free test is a big leap forward in bringing cancer detection to settings with little medical infrastructure. In countries where more advanced diagnostics are available, it could provide an inexpensive alternative to imaging. The technology relies on nanoparticles that interact with tumor proteins called proteases, each of which releases hundreds of biomarkers detectable in a patient’s urine. In the original version of the technology, these biomarkers were detected using a highly specialized instrument called a mass spectrometer. Now, applying the same technology used in pregnancy tests, the researchers have adapted the particles so they can be analyzed on paper. The Bhatia Laboratory recently won a grant from MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation to develop a business plan for a startup to commercialize the technology and perform clinical trials to bring this diagnostic to patients. The research has been profiled in media outlets including The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, Boston Magazine, The Times of India, and The Indian Express, and was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellowship, the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the National Cancer Institute, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Irvine’s Albumin-targeted Vaccines Hitch a Ride to the Lymph Nodes to Boost Immunity

MIT News

February 16, 2014

Many vaccines, including those for influenza, polio, and measles, consist of a killed or disabled version of a virus. However, for certain diseases, this type of vaccine is ineffective, or just too risky. An alternative, safer approach is a vaccine made of small fragments of proteins produced by a disease-causing virus or bacterium. This has worked for some diseases, but in many cases these vaccines don’t provoke a strong enough response. Now a team of engineers from the Irvine Lab has developed a new way to deliver such vaccines directly to the lymph nodes, where huge populations of immune cells reside: These vaccines hitch a ride to the lymph nodes by latching on to the protein albumin, found in the bloodstream. In tests with mice, such vaccines produced very strong immune responses.

Hemann & Chen Combine Forces against Resistant Tumors

MIT News

January 30, 2014

KI faculty members Michael Hemann, the Eisen and Chang Career Development Associate Professor of Biology, and Jianzhu Chen, the Ivan R. Cottrell Professor of Immunology, have discovered a new treatment for drug-resistant tumors using a combination of existing drugs. In a study published in Cell, the KI team showed that the simultaneous administration of an antibody drug called alemtuzumab (which is FDA-approved for some cancers and in clinical trials for some forms of lymphoma) and cyclophosphamide (a drug that is often given to cancer patients) makes tumor cells more vulnerable to the antibody treatment. Cyclophosphamide stimulates the immune response in bone marrow, eliminating the reservoir of cancer cells that can produce new tumors after treatment and avoiding tumor recurrence. The researchers also reported good results by combining cyclophosphamide with rituximab, another antibody drug used to treat lymphoma and leukemia. They now plan to test cyclophosphamide with other types of antibody drugs for breast and prostate tumors. This research was funded by the MIT Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology, the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, the German Research Foundation, and the National Cancer Institute. First author and former KI postdoc Christian Pallasch plans to begin testing the alemtuzumab-cyclophosphamide treatment in lymphoma patients.

Langer Receives Breakthrough Prize

MIT News

January 15, 2014

David H. Koch Institute Professor Robert Langer has been awarded the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his revolutionary work on the development of technologies for the controlled release of drugs and of other materials for biomedical applications.The prize, now in its second year, recognizes excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life. Koch Institute members Robert Weinberg and Eric Lander each received one of the inaugural prizes in 2013.

Ludwig Center Receives $90M for Cancer Research Endowment at MIT

MIT News

January 6, 2014

The Ludwig Center at MIT is one of six centers to receive a total of $540 million in new financial support from Ludwig Cancer Research on behalf of its founder, the late American shipping magnate Daniel K. Ludwig.  The new gift adds to the endowments established in 2006 to create the Ludwig Centers at each institution, and is one of the largest in MIT's history.

Headed by Koch Institute member and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at MIT Robert Weinberg, the Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology at MIT is focused on understanding and disrupting the metastatic spread of cancer. Ludwig funds currently support six faculty members, all of whom are located at the KI, along with several fellowships for students and postdoctoral researchers.

“We are extremely grateful to receive this gift in support of cancer research,” said Tyler Jacks, a Daniel K. Ludwig Scholar at the Ludwig Center at MIT and director of the Koch Institute, “and we are committed to using these funds to make a meaningful impact on the important problem of metastasis." The Ludwig gift adds considerable strength and long-term sustainability to MIT's interdisciplinary approach to cancer research, and has been profiled in media outlets including MIT News, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Yaffe Finds New Target for Cancer Combination Treatment

MIT News

November 14, 2013

Mutation of the p53 gene occurs in about half of all cancer patients, and tumors with the mutation continue growing even after intense chemotherapy. Previously, the lab of Michael Yaffe, David H. Koch Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering, discovered that blocking a gene called MK2 can overcome the effects of the p53 mutation and make these tumors more vulnerable to chemotherapy in vitro. In a new study published in Cell Reports, Yaffe lab researchers collaborated with KI Director Tyler Jacks to create mice with MK2 genes that can be turned on and off and test the process in vivo. They found that in p53-deficient tumor-bearing mice with MK2 turned off, tumors shrank successfully upon treatment with the DNA-damaging therapeutic cisplatin, whereas tumors in mice with unblocked MK2 genes continued growing. This study suggests potential for new cancer treatments combining MK2 inhibitors with DNA-damaging drugs. Drugs that inhibit MK2 are in the works for other diseases such as arthritis, but this is the first time they are being considered for cancer therapy. The research was primarily funded by a TRANSCEND grant from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The study was profiled in MIT Technology Review.

Hammond Knocks Breast Cancer Down, Then Out

MIT News

October 21, 2013

To help overcome chemotherapy resistance, David H. Koch Professor in Engineering Paula Hammond and her team have created targeted, multi-layer nanoparticles that codeliver the cancer drug doxorubicin, alongside RNA that can shut off a gene that cancer cells use to escape the drug. This strategy disables tumors' defenses and makes them much more vulnerable to chemotherapy. Using these nanoparticles, the researchers were able to shrink agressive triple-negative breast tumors in mice, as reported in the journal ACS Nano. The team is now testing the therapy in a more complex model of the cancer, and they are also working on adapting it to treat ovarian and lung cancers. The research was funded by a TRANSCEND grant from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the National Cancer Institute. The study has been profiled in media outlets including MIT News, The Economist, Chicago Tribune, Chemical and Engineering News, Science Daily, and Computer World.